Grouch on patrol

As part of my continuing education I got a ride along with one of the City's patrolmen. He was a very nice young man, very fit appearing, very polite and very focused. We patrolled pretty close to where my place of employment is. I learned that our call sign indicated that we were a one officer car (I won't reveal it) but if a call sign starts with 'Adam' it means two officers. Sound familiar? Come on, you must have watched the TV show in the 60s - or was it the 70s? How many officers were assigned to that car? Our patrol was pretty uneventful, low crime rate and all. We got one guy for expired registration and his car ended up getting towed away. Two others were pulled over for minor MV code violations but let go with a warning. As we drove the officer would key plate numbers into his computer looking for bad guys. I learned that there is a look that guilty drivers give that attracts the officer's attention and that driving significantly below the speed limit is another clue to being up to no good. Since the blue whale drives (wallows) about 5 MPH below the posted limit - since it is the size of an ocean liner it take a quarter mile to change direction, just like the Titanic or the Andrea Doria, both of which lie at the bottom of the ocean because they needed to change direction now not in a quarter mile and you can see what happened to them - I hope I don't attract any undue attention.

The last thing I learned from the officer was to never, never use my debit card at any place except a bank ATM due to rampant fraud. I then suggested we get a snack which entailed stopping at Starbucks. I grandly pulled out my debit card to pay which earned me a disapproving "I've got cash so I'll pay" from my temporary partner. I could tell he was hurt that I hadn't heeded his warning about debit cards. Dang!

I learned that law enforcement, like combat, is hours and even days of routine and even boredom bookmarked by frantic action. Every stop could turn bad and as the officer gets out of the car his adrenaline is already pumping. Be nice to the officer if he pulls you over. He may just let you go with a warning!